Liu Bocheng

Liu Bocheng (4 December 1892-7 October 1986) was a Marshal of the People's Liberation Army of China during the Chinese Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Biography
Liu Bocheng was born on 4 December 1892 in Kaixian, Sichuan, China to a peasant family; his village is currently submerged by the Three Gorges Dam. He decided to dedicate himself to creating a modern and democratic China after being inspired by the teachings of Sun Yat-sen, and he joined the Boy Scouts in 1911 to support the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty. In 1914, he joined Sun Yat-sen's faction of the Kuomintang to fight against the counter-revolutionary Yuan Shikai, who wanted to declare himself emperor. Liu gained combat experience under the Kuomintang, fighting against warlords such as Yuan Shikai, Wu Peifu, and Long Yun.

In May 1926, he joined the Communist Party of China after becoming acquainted with some communist leaders, and he became an army corps commander in 1927. He took part in the 1 August 1927 Nanchang Uprising against the Kuomintang after the paternal autocratic KMT and the communist CCP parted ways, and he became Chief of Staff of the Chinese Red Army. Liu took part in the battles against the Imperial Japanese Army in central China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and he would also lead communist troops during the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949. It was Liu who led the capture of Nanjing during the civil war, and he was promoted to Commissar of the People's Liberation Army Military Academy. However, his reputation was ruined when an anonymous author wrote a book saying that Liu could rise up and form an empire like his supposed ancestor, Liu Bang, had done with the Han dynasty. Mao Zedong demoted him and distrusted him, and he lived in reclusion in Beijing from 1959 onwards. He was blind by the time of the Cultural Revolution, and he survived the purges. He died in 1986, and he was posthumously rehabilitated.